post by Stephanie Nelson
In reading through the April issue of The Social Media Monthly magazine again, I came across an article called “Convenience and Contention: Pandora, Spotify and the Rapidly Changing Landscape of Social Music” by Rose de Fremery. In the article, de Fremery examines the pros and cons of Pandora and Spotify, both to the users and the musicians.
Personally, I’m a Spotify fan. I love that I can build playlists of music I like without paying gazillions of dollars to own each song I want on a playlist. I’m also a HUGE fan of the ability to subscribe to my Facebook friends’ public playlists and get exposed to new-to-me music. So much so, in fact, that I pay the $9.99 monthly fee to have access from my iPhone, too!
Admittedly, though, I hadn’t thought much about how this affected the musicians whose music I appreciate. According to the article, artists get only $0.00029 per album “sold” from streaming services like Pandora and Spotify. In contrast, that same $9.99 CD would net artists $0.94 from iTunes and $7.50 from CD Baby. This creates a conundrum for me – the artists don’t HAVE to release their music to the streaming services; but the fewer that do, the less I’m getting for my $9.99. AND I may very well go an buy the CD from iTunes if I like it.
My husband on the other hand is a total Pandora nut! He prefers the random selections of songs that he can play through his computer or the app on his phone (which we plug in to the car and listen to more than the SiriusXM radio we pay for these days).
So do you use a social music application? How does your social media activity influence your music choices? Do you pay attention to your friends’ posts announcing what they’re listening to and what software/application they’re using?